NEW YORK—Vision Monday is proud to present the winning retailers in our 1st Annual Dispensing and Retail Excellence (D.A.R.E.) Awards.

The D.A.R.E. Awards was conceived to honor daring optical retailers and dispensers of all sizes from across North America in five different categories, with an additional winner, chosen by reader vote, for a sixth award.

Retailers and ECPs were asked to submit entries from June 27 through July 31. Those submissions were reviewed by a panel of judges (more on them on page 56) and the winners in each category, across three size tiers—10 or fewer locations, 11 to 49 locations and 50+ locations or online only—were identified. The judges also selected five entries they saw worthy of recognition for their daring approaches across different aspects of optical retailing.

From Aug. 15 through Sept. 2, readers were then able to vote on those five nominees at
www.VisionMonday.com/DARE for a special “We the People” Reader Vote Award.

When we first launched the contest we hoped to get a good response. What we got was far beyond what we had hoped for.

We received several dozen entries from all over the U.S. and Canada, as well as more than 600 unique reader votes, and now for the first time all the D.A.R.E. honorees can be revealed.

If you missed entering this year or were just waiting to see what it was all about, we hope the caliber of our winners inspires you to participate. And have no fear, we were so gratified by the number of entries and votes we received we’re doing it again next year!

So please help us in congratulating our inaugural winners and be sure to look for the interactive story in our Digital Edition which will provide live links to the winners’ websites, social media platforms and submission videos.
■dcarroll@jobson.com